Penal code offenses in Osaka Prefecture in the first half of 2026 will increase for the fifth consecutive year, and special fraud losses will exceed 17 billion yen, the highest ever

In the first half of 2026 (January to June), the number of criminal law offenses detected by the Osaka Prefectural Police was 41,173 (up 2.2% from the same period last year), marking the fifth consecutive year of increase.

The amount of damage caused by special fraud exceeded 17 billion yen, the highest ever in the first half of the year. It is estimated that approximately 95 million yen was defrauded per day.

On the other hand, the number of car thefts has decreased significantly, and the number of arrests and referrals to prosecutors has tripled.

According to the Prefectural Police's Crime Prevention Strategy Headquarters, the number of special fraud cases identified by the Prefectural Police was 2,231 (up 2.7% from the previous year). The amount of damage increased by 6,011,340,000 yen to 17,193,440,000 yen (up 53.8% year on year), the worst on record.

Particularly notable were ``SNS-type investment fraud'' (568 cases) and ``fake police fraud'' (501 cases).

These two methods alone accounted for 13,269.42 billion yen, or about 80% of the total damage caused by special fraud.

SNS-type investment scams are scams that trick people out of money by making them believe that they can earn profits by investing in crypto assets or stocks through SNS.

Being introduced to the “assistant woman”

They use fake apps to make it look like they are making money, so it takes time for them to realize it's a scam, and they end up transferring money over and over again.

A man in his 30s living in the prefecture was introduced to a fake app in March and April and was defrauded of a total of approximately 133 million yen.

In January, the man "liked" the account of an investor he was interested in on social media.

Then, I received a DM (direct message) saying that I would like to share some useful information about stocks, and we started communicating on social media.

Afterwards, he was introduced to a ``female assistant'' on social media, who instructed him to install an app that showed him the status of stock operations.

The man transferred cash to the specified account 20 times under the name of stock investment.

Although it appeared on the app that he was making a profit by investing in stocks, the app was fake and he was actually being scammed out of his money.

Reasons why the amount tends to increase

“Fake police” pretending to be police officers etc.